us tonight. chris hayes is up next. tonight on "all in," -- >> i'm proud of the fact that the prime minister has accepted our invitation. >> boehner and bb tonight on all in -- >> i'm, frankly, proud of the fact that the prime minister has accepted our invitation. >> boehner and bb, in the wake of the speaker's back door invitation to netanyahu. >> we have a right to do it, and we did it. >> the hearing on the hill. >> what legal rationale would be in play that would prohibit polygamy? >> republicans on the senate judiciary committee played gotcha as loretta lynch bids to replace eric holder. plus, the white house yanks their plan to roll back a college tax break as reporters who benefit from the tax break stage rebellion. and forgetting sarah palin. >> for it is they who point a

finger, they have tripled that amount of fingers pointing right back at them. >> what took them so long. >> i was inspired by her to write a book about someone who was cuckoo for cocoa puffs. don't ask me. >> we can afford no retreads. >> good evening from new york. i'm chris hayes. israel prepares to possibly launch a new war with hezbollah after two israeli soldiers were killed today. relations between israel and the u.s. appear to have reached their lowest point in recent memory, possibly in decades. president obama and israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu have never been best of friends, but lobbying congress against one of the top foreign policy priorities, relationships between the two leaders may have gotten even worse. while the ploy has taken a toll on u.s.-israeli relations, it's caused a big turnaround for

president obama. from the president's own party, senate republicans looked like they might have the votes to advance new sanctions on iran despite the administration's objections, that sanctions would jeopardize the ongoing nuclear talks. well, then john boehner and benjamin netanyahu entered the picture and tried to do an end run around the president, and now the whole thing has completely blown up in their faces. last week boehner announced he had invited netanyahu. he explained his rationale in an interview with "60 minutes." >> there's nobody in the world that can talk about the threat of radical terrorism, nobody can talk about the threat that the iranians pose, not just to the

middle east and to israel, or longest ally, but the entire world than bb netanyahu. this problem is growing all over the world. the president is trying to act like it's not there. but it is there. and it's going to be a threat to our homeland if we don't address it in a bigger way. >> netanyahu is scheduled to address a joint session of congress march 3rd, two days after the u.s.-israel apac convenes in washington where they do a lot of lobbying on the hill and two weeks before netanyahu's party stands for parliamentary elections in israel. the white house said it had not been informed of the invitation prior to its being made, describing it as, quote, a departure from protocol. and one official is saying, we thought we've seen everything. but bb managed to surprise even us. there are things you simply don't do. he spat in our face publicly, and that's no way to behave. to add insult to injury, according to the "washington

post," the announcement came just a day after secretary of state john kerry met for more than two hours with israel's ambassador to the u.s. who never once mentioned the invitation from boehner, or the prospect of a netanyahu visit. citing the prospect of netanyahu's visit, president obama has said he will not be meeting with his counterpart while he's in washington. >> i speak with prime minister netanyahu all the time. you know, we're declining to meet with him simply because of our general policy is, we don't meet with any world leader two weeks before their election. i think that's inappropriate. that's true with some of our closest allies. >> condemnation of the plan to go behind president obama's back has been nearly unanimous. national director supports iran sanctions, called the invitation acceptance ill advised for either side. netanyahu's own former ambassador, now a parliamentary candidate, quote, they created the impression of a cynical

political move that could hurt our attempts to act against iran. even fox news expressed outrage at netanyahu's move. >> it just seems like they think we don't pay any attention, and we're just a bunch of complete morons, the united states is. like we wouldn't pick up on what's happening here. >> for netanyahu to do something that is going to be seen as such a deliberate and really pretty egregious snub of president obama when obama's going to be in power for the next year and three-quarters would seem to me to be a very risky political strategy for prime minister netanyahu. >> the visit was designed to boost netanyahu's standing with his own constituents in israel. that appears to have backfired as well. netanyahu's visit has released a wave of backlash in his own country. people are now questioning his judgment. when it comes to netanyahu and

boehner, repudiating president obama on sanctions, it appeared to have achieved the opposite effect. ten senate democrats who support new sanctions just announced they will now wait to take a vote in order to give the nuclear talks a chance to progress, precisely the opposite of what both boehner and presumably benjamin netanyahu wanted of the the earliest they now vote with be march 24th. joining me chris murphy of connecticut. a member of the senate foreign relations committee. have you ever seen anything like this, senator? >> i've never seen anything like this. it's an exceptional breach of protocol. it's too bad, because all it is is a breach of protocol. it's not a break in policy. it masks the fact that the united states is still the strongest supporter in the world of israel, masks the fact that we're standing together in the fight against terrorism. this quote from boehner that you played that the president is ignoring the threat posed to israel, our allies in the middle east and the united states, is

ridiculous given the fact we're spending billions of dollars as we speak right now leading the fight against isil. unfortunately, it politicizes the u.s.-israeli relationship in a way that's not helpful to anybody. >> there's a sort of significant substantive dispute here, i think the president and his people believe it is possible, they don't know if it is going to be achieved, but possible to achieve some kind of diplomat solution to iran's nuclear program in which they halt any kind of nuclear weapons program in exchange possibly for something like diplomatic recognition, which would be a huge sea change in a whole bunch of stuff, right? benjamin netanyahu, and many israelis think that is impossible. that is not a group you can negotiate with. many republicans and many democrats in congress feel that

way. is that what you see as the fundamental issue at the heart of this? and where do you come down. >> well, i think it is close to the fundamental disagreement. i think that the israelis believe that you could get a deal. but they don't trust that the iranians would hold to it. there are those of us who believe we can put into place a series of intrusive inspections that would give us the ability to detect the moment at which they breach the deal and start moving toward a nuclear weapon. it's much better than the alternative, which is walk away from negotiations, and effectively leave military action as the only alternative. i think there's clearly a deal. but the president's people will not get a deal if we pass sanctions today. as the netanyahu government apparently wants us to do. so if netanyahu's government is to settle talks, passing sanctions is a good way to do it. from left to right, we're supportive of a settlement of a negotiated deal. i think that's why you've seen a lot of my colleagues pull back from the sanctions bill. >> that's optimistic and charitable on your part about your colleagues, because the fact of the matter is, two weeks

ago i was actually going through a list. it wasn't hard to get to 60, maybe even 62, 63 votes for something like this. there's been a sea change. it strikes me that part of it is the fallout from the netanyahu visit. there are a lot of folks on the democratic side of this who don't appear to not want a deal. >> it's hard for me to tell exactly how much the netanyahu protocol breach had to do with this change. because last year, if you remember, we were arguing over sanctions as well. it looked like we might have had close to 60 votes. when the president started to forcefully lobby my colleagues, they started to back down. i think that's what you saw here as well, coincidental to this protocol issue. the president was making phone calls, was pitching the caucus, was speaking the state of the union speech. when he gets behind something like this, he's pretty persuasive. i think that had a lot more to do with it than the impact of this invitation to speak before the congress. >> senator chris murphy, thank you, sir, appreciate it. >> thanks.

benjamin netanyahu is vowing that whoever was behind today's attack on israeli soldiers near the lebanese border will, quote, pay the full price. two soldiers were killed, seven others wounded when their convoy came under missile fire in a disputed area where the three countries converge. hezbollah has claimed responsibility, indicating the attack was retaliation for an israeli air strike in syria ten days ago. that air strike killed six of hezbollah's fighters, including the son of its deceased military commander, as well as an iranian general. the u.s. state department counseled against any further escalation, also affirmed israel's right to self-defense. >> this is a situation where there's been an attack from hezbollah. obviously we condemn that. is our preference that there are no more attacks? yes. but we also believe israel has the right to defend itself. >> netanyahu has convened his security chiefs. they traded artillery fire for hours after the initial strike. threatening to end the relative calm since their last conflict in 2006, and raising fears of yet another war.

i'm joined by nbc news foreign correspondent, ayman. let's start, obviously it's impossible to start these things, but let's start ten days with the strike that happened in syria. this is an israeli strike in syria. what happened there? >> we should be clear israel never claimed responsibility for it. all indications were hezbollah blamed a lot of people, even the israeli media was widely citing security forces claiming that it was israel behind it. in essence, israel carried out an air strike on a convoy inside syria, in that convoy was a senior member of hezbollah, the son of the deceased former leader who is also to have been killed by israel. in addition to that, was an iranian general. according to israeli sources, they weren't aware that the iranian general was there. it seems the convoy that was targeted was just the hezbollah

convoy. but it seems to have taken out a substantial figure within hezbollah. people called him a rising star within the organization. now, in the response to that, hezbollah vowed to carry out retaliation, and that is what we're seeing today. >> we now see israel weighing whether it's going to launch further offensive. lieberman, a far right member of the netanyahu cabinet, i saw some quote about, you know, disproportionate response, i think he said he wanted to promise. we saw something like this with hamas rocket fire in the gaza war last year. what's the calculation here? what are you anticipating we're going to see happen? there's precedent in 2006, israel went to war against hezbollah and it was by all accounts a political disaster for the israeli leadership. >> it was a political and military one certainly. early indications is both sides

don't want a wider war. they certainly want to establish a deterrent. that was one of the things that was a casualty in the 2006 war for israel. israel has always relied on the deterrent capability, that no group or country was able to sustain a long military campaign against it. hezbollah did manage to do that. in the eyes of the supporters, hezbollah emerged victorious. but they also conceded that the cost of that war on lebanese broader society was devastating. so as a result of that, both sides right now realize that they could find themselves in a prolonged conflict without a clear victor. so the early analysis after this is what happened today, in terms of the retaliation israel carried out, a few artillery shells, is what both sides could withstand. >> hezbollah, of course, has active fighters in what is now the most insanely complex war zone in the world, which is syria. they are allied with the iranians and with the assad regime in one kind of axis of fighters in that context. >> hezbollah demonstrated the capability of fighting a guerrilla war against israel. it doesn't want to open a second front against israel when it's involved in the ongoing fight inside syria.

but they certainly have a pinpoint accuracy in carrying out these types of attacks, in a very limited, but potentially lethal way against israeli soldiers. >> yet again a reminder of the vanishing probability that the war within syria stays within syria. the potential for it to just explode out of syria exists at every second. ayman, thank you very much. >> thank you. the republicans attended the confirmation hearing for loretta lynch. what would it look like if ok pile wall street was put in -lo charge of the u.s. government? we now have something close to a real-life version of that. i'll explain ahead. and a 2014 top safety pick plus rating. cost of entry? a fortune. until now. hey sarah, new jetta? yup. can i check it out? maybe at halftime? introducing lots of new. the new volkswagen jetta. isn't it time for german engineering? when heartburn comes creeping up

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president obama's nominee to replace eric holder. if confirmed, the top federal prosecutor in brooklyn will be the first black woman to serve as attorney general of the united states in its history. lynch is also the first obama cabinet nominee to go before the senate since republicans won control of it back in november. and as senator patrick leahy is quick to point out she is well liked across the ideological spectrum. >> bill o'reilly on fox called uhj you a hero, and said, quote, you should be respected by all americans for standing up to gross injustice.

>> there's one dominant theme in today's hearing that had little -w to do with miss lynch's own record and everything to do with the record of her would-be boss. >> i would like to remind my colleagues that the president's immigration policies are not seeking confirmation today. loretta lynch is. >> that's an adorable try, senator shumer, but that's not happening. the issue of immigration specifically president obama's executive actions on immigration which have the legal blessing of the department of justice, it was the very first question. >> do you believe that the president has the legal authority to unilaterally deportations in a blanket imaginer for millions of people and grant them permits and other benefits other than what the constitution immigration laws say? >> i don't see any reason to doubt the reasonableness of those views. >> also at issue, the man who approved the president's executive action on immigration, the current attorney general.

>> let me just stipulate you're not eric holder, are you? >> no, i'm not, shir. >> you wouldn't be consider yourself to be a political arm of the white house, as attorney general, would you. >> no, sir, that would be an inappropriate view of the position of attorney general. >> the immigration issue certainly dominated the hearing, it wasn't the only line of questioning lynch faced from the republican majority. >> what's the legal difference between a state -- a ban on same-sex marriage being unconstitutional, but a ban on polygamy being unconstitutional? can you tell how one is banned and the other not. >> i've not been involved in the cases before the supreme court. i'm not comfortable undertaking legal analysis without having had the ability to undertake a review of the relevant facts and the precedent there. >> do you believe, and do you support legalization of marijuana? >> senator, i do not. >> content of some of the questions of the tone of today's

hearing seemed cordial. right now the chances of receiving enough votes seems pretty good. you worked at the doj. i thought loretta lynch was basically unflappable as republicans tried to flap her. >> that's exactly right, chris. she was a rock star. she was who she is, a prosecutor, a law and order person, someone who cares about following the law, understanding her role as a potential attorney general in the executive branch. this is really one of the most qualified nominees for attorney general that we've seen. she's been twice a u.s. attorney. she has a record on terrorism prosecutions, as well as a range of other high-profile criminal and civil matters. they couldn't touch loretta lynch today. >> they did not lay a glove on her, metaphorically. but there is something interesting about this, the role of attorney general, which

there's some sort of really fascinating constitutional ambiguity. attorney generals in the president's candidate, but there's this tradition of independence. i think what the senators were trying to get at, you know, in good faith, i think it's a genuine line of inquiry, just where she will rank in that. i mean, what is the right answer? is that a not settled matter? >> well, i think for the most part, i mean, first, they were using this hearing as your piece indicates to really kind of grandstand on their negativity -- >> grandstanding at a senate hearing? get out of here. >> so that's what that was about. but it is a real interesting question, constitutional question, that for the most part, attorneys general have had the view, at least for many, many years, that they're independent of the president in the critical part of their being

able to enforce the laws fairly and to be able to enforce the laws nonpolitically. it is an important tenet of those who sit in that chair, to know that their job is to follow the law, even if the president disagrees. because the president is in a political position that is in a different -- of a different kind than someone who's charged with actually law enforcement. law enforcement is serious business, and she knows it. having the power of a prosecutor is a very, very important and ,6ñ kind of sacred power. and she gets it. and that's why that role is different, from like health and human services, or the department of education. >> here's my question. talk about her being a prosecutor. i think eric holder has one big legacy, one on voting rights, you worked in the voting rights division in a previous

administration. the other i think is beginning the conversation and the institutional shift away from the kinds of crime and punishment policies we've seen in this country for 30 or 40 years. my question is, you put a life-long prosecutor in that job. does she carry that forward? >> i think that's the best person to carry that forward, chris. i feel like those folks who have been working in prosecution, working in the system as long as loretta lynch has, they understand that there is something broken in the system. they understand, i think, more than outside observers do, that the system needs to work to prosecute people, and put folks in jail who need to be in jail. but to understand that putting people in jail for long periods of time, under harsh mandatory minimums or under unfair drug laws is not the way it's really going to make us all safer. i think a career prosecutor is the best person to understand why we need criminal justice reform, and also a partner with lawsuit. the only way we get true reform is to partner with police officers, police executives and the communities and bring everybody together to kind of make sure that we're safe, but we're also fair. >> former deputy assistant

attorney general, thank you. >> thank you. sarah palin's speech this weekend, not a sentence i utter that often on this show, at the iowa freedom summit. well, it reminded a lot of people, actually not a lot of people, it reminded me of this. >> anything can be a slam, a poem, if you say it like this. pointless. >> you'll see what i mean next. the sleekest... ...sexiest ...baddest ...safest, ...tightest, ...quickest... ...harshest... ...or nothing. at mercedes-benz, we do things one way or we don't do them at all. introducing the all-new c-class. see your authorized mercedes-benz dealer for exceptional offers through mercedes-benz financial services. [ hoof beats ] i wish... please, please, please, please, please. [ male announcer ] the wish we wish above all...is health. so we quit selling cigarettes in our cvs pharmacies. expanded minuteclinic for walk-in medical care. and created

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racism, sexism, whatever. really, it's kind of orwellian how that works, that rule that the left employs. disgusting charges from the left, reverse them. for it is they who point a finger -- they have tripled that amount of fingers pointing back at them. we can afford no retreads, or nothing will change, with the same people, the same policies that got us into this status quo. another latin word, status quo, and it stands for, man, the middle class, everyday americans are really getting taken for a ride. >> a little sampling of what i call red state slam poetry that's turning a lot of heads. that speech from the iowa freedom summit over the weekend might represent the end

officially of the sarah palin bandwagon. the rambling, semi coherent rant precipitated fresh criticism. i was wrong about sarah palin, quote, she squandered her opportunity for greatness and instead became a fad. maybe her early critics saw her character flaw of things to come. charles c.w. cook writes of what he call's palin slow descent. activists and iowa republicans slammed the speech. her shelf life even with the most conservative voters in the party seems to be at an end. when asked about the speech -- >> you also got criticized by a lot of people in the crowd that tend to be supporters of yours. and then did the teleprompter go down? did you have trouble with the copy? did you have any moment in the speech that you had difficulty

because people have been so krit can cal? >> i don't read the praise and i don't read the criticism because i know how you guys -- or the media in general works. >> like the iraq war in the politicos who have been dining out being wrong on her for years. nicole wallace became a household name in politics for her role in bringing sarah palin to the threshold of power. and then very publicly realizing what a disaster that whole enterprise had been. >> when she was interviewed by katie couric, it was a question seemingly not insurmountable. what newspapers do you read? >> yeah. she blamed me for that one. >> should you have prepped her on something like that? >> probably. >> so, hey, welcome to everyone who is years late, staring us all in the face the entire time, that sarah palin has no business being president of the united

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the kind of photo we've seen hundreds of across the world in the last world in the era of crisis and protests. scuffling with a protester, the older man in the middle, with the cop shield in his face. that picture was taken in greece in 2013. in the picture, his name is nicos. and here's how the story ends. that protester, the guy you can see here being screamed at by a police officer, has risen to a member of parliament to minister of the interior of greece, which now makes him the head of the greek police, and the boss of

those cops. true. and that is due to the most seismic political victory we've seen in europe probably since the eu was created, as that picture would suggest is kind of like the occupy movement taking over the actual reins of u.s. government. on monday, 40-year-old alexis sipres was sworn in as greece's new prime minister as his party won 36% of the vote in sunday's election and formed a governing coalition with a small central right party. the "wall street journal" called it a rid radical leftist party. but he's really the radical left. the party name is an acronym for words that literally translate to, quote, coalition of the radical left. and the party's new leader and the new prime minister is a committed leftist, a devout atheist. so how did that guy end up in charge?v7![

it's because for the past few years greece has been going through a massive depression, or wrenching humiliating, devastating depression, in front of all of our eyes. unemployment rates in greece is nearly 26%. roughly the same rate as in america's great depression. youth unemployment over 50%. the nation is in the midst of what is accurately described as a full-blown humanitarian crisis. it is a crisis that was chosen, basically imposed on greece by the european union, which forced greece . >> whether the success of this

leftist movement in greece has the potential to spread across europe. joining me now economist and professor, he published a paper with his former colleague, who is the new greek finance minister about how to bring greece from the eurozone back from the brink. professor, basically greece had huge debts. they couldn't pay those debts. the crisis happened. the revenue sank. they had huge debts. they needed someone to bail them out.

the european power standings said we'll give you this if basically you water board your own economy. what does greece do now? >> two points. the bailout was not a bailout of greece, it was a bailout of greece's creditors who otherwise would have suffered losses. the conditions for doing that, which were accepted by the previous greek government were punitive in character, and led to the consequences that you described. and so what happened in greece, as you say, was that the population . >> as far as the debt is concerned, that's a negotiation. it's a negotiation with a great deal at stake, including the future of the eurozone itself. the greek government is

committed to the euro, and to the future of europe. but it requires for that commitment to be successful, that the european partners also take finally a realistic view. and i think, you know, this is the challenge before the new greek government. what is impressive about it to me is that this is a government that does have the capacity to make -- to carry that point, to get that point across in the face of the position that has been taken by the germans and french and others. >> your former colleague is now the finance minister.

in the previous job working at a video game company, he was the in-house economist, running the monetary policy and currency of video game world that had a unified currency. he's someone who's come from the margins, you know, some crazy lefty, to now the center in the sense that lots of people are saying what europe has done to greece is crazy and maybe this guy has the solution. >> he's not crazy at all. the consulting job you mentioned

was a relatively brief but very interesting one conceptually. what he is, is one of the world's most prominent experts in the theory of games. which is, after all, the mathematics and economics of strategic interaction and negotiation. he's exceedingly well prepared for this particular job. he's also been -- i got to know him because he was the figure after the crisis in all of europe for clarity in expressing what was go;c%r÷%ujj v hings were not going to work, and why there needed to be an alternative. >> exciting times. >> he's probably written millions of words on that in the last four years. >> promising and exciting times. thank you. >> thank you. one of president obama's proposals may have set the record for shortest life span of any proposal ever. what it was and why it died so very quickly ahead. : in the nation, we know how it feels when you aren't treated like a priority.

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let's close the loopholes that lead to inequality by allowing the top 1% to avoid paying taxes on their accumulated wealth. we can use that money to help more families pay for child care and send their kids to college. >> that sounds sensible and harmless enough. it's one of the president's major state of the union policy proposals, and set the record this year for shortest-lived idea before it even made it onto the page. a white house plan would have effectively stopped 529. the idea was to put the money from that program into another tax credit. the administration says more effectively targets middle class and low-income families. unfortunately for the economists

at 1600 pennsylvania, the backlash was both strong and immediate. >> we begin with president obama's proposed assault on popular college savings accounts. >> the president last night said we're going to take the savings that you're putting away tax-free, for your kids' college education, and when you draw it out and write the tuition check, we're dpgs to slap a tax on that. >> i was told not to cut off my nose to spite my face, and that seems like what's happening here. >> it wasn't just tv news hosts and pundits who were outraged, journalists took to twitter to protest. who convinced the white house that their 529 proposal was a good idea. politico saying, i suppose it's pointless to get too worked up about the proposed 529 plan change as it has no chance of becoming law. to put it in perspective. 97% of people in the united states do not have the 529

college savings plans, according to a government accountability office report. the 3% who do are on average, guess what, much wealthier than those who do not. the report found the typical family who used the account had median total financial assets 25 times higher than families who didn't have 529s. the white house didn't realize that the people who make up chattering class are probably the people who most likely to actually use 529s. after less than a week of opposition, the plan from all corners, including john boehner and nancy pelosi, they scrapped the plan. here's the thing about the proposal, the white house was right to want to end that tax shelter. i say this as someone who like the president dutifully uses it year after year. why they were right, next.

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making it more accessible and affordable with walk-in medical care, no appointments needed and most insurance accepted. minuteclinic. another innovation from cvs health. because health is everything. joining me now an economist and author of the test, why our schools are obsessed with standardized testing but you don't have to be. and pulitzer prize-winner journalist. my go to on everything related. not my actual taxes, but maybe i should consult you on that as well. david, this is a broader thing. this is how we solve problems in america. like college is too expensive. we'll create some tax deferred

account where you can put money in. oh, health care expenses are catastrophic, you need a health savings accounts. nobody has day care in america. put $5,000 into a day care savings account. no one has retirement security. i have your 401(k). the way we solve every problem is with these programs that tend to benefit essential live the upper middle class and above. >> i gave you tax relief, and i solved your problem. even though you haven't done that. >> right. >> and the 529 plan is an example of what we call an upside down subsidy. if you're going to subsidize somebody, it somebody in need. we don't need to give subsidies to bill gates or warren buffet, although we do. and michelle and barack obama, multimillionaires who put almost quarter million dollars into a 529 plan for their daughters' future education. prudent thing for them to do, not particularly good use of our tax money. >> if you have somebody paying

50% in the tax bracket, a millionaire, they put $20,000 into an account, they've just saved $10,000. okay? if you take someone who's not making that much money and manages to get $2,000 they put in, you know, the subsidy is like $500, $600. that's how this program works. >> right. but politically, although 70% of the gains go to people in the top 5%, untaxed gains when you take the money out and spend it on tuition, politically there's a lot of people in that class, and there are a lot of people in the low six figures who are able to get their congress person, or their staff member on the phone and say, what? and who, i will say, who have genuine check anxiety. >> because if there's one thing in america growing faster than health care spending, the only thing that beats health care spending is tuition. people are like, what the heck am i going to do? they're increasing college tuitions and fees. growing at an astounding rate. it's like this is the solution,

but it's not really the solution. >> chris, when i went to college it was free. >> exactly. it's no longer. >> there's a doughnut hole in how we subsidize college. lower income families do take advantage of the pell grant, that's why they cling to the 529, even though they were recently -- the idea you're going to save enough money to pay for a community college is totally off the chain. it's not happening. >> that's the point. when you look at the actual savings rate of americans, we're doing all these things to subsidize. no one's saving money. america does not have a particularly robust savings rate. even if you were saving, and you had huge returns, there's no way you're making up the increase in tuition costs. >> i did the calculation on the way over, i have a 3-year-old daughter, i don't have that kind of money laying around.

>> this is perfect. we'll give you your tax subsidy on your savings money so you can afford your $300,000 tuition. what is the solution? people, i think we want people to go to college. i think it's useful, good. the vast majority of people in america don't go to four-year colleges, which gets completely left out of the discussion. no, my kid, no, that's okay. what should the solution be? >> i'm hoping this is a brilliant ploy by the obama administration to detract from the community college plan. i think free community college, the idea that we extend the public franchise to higher identification indication and makes it free for two more years, to help someone get that degree is a brilliant idea. >> interesting. >> the public cost structure -- >> do you think this is policy a false flag? >> well, david, it's an illustration of middle class and upper middle class anxiety about

the pillar parts of what people think of social mobility. it's also an example of why it's reform the tax code. this was a relatively small little thing. it didn't last five days. it was killed faster than they could even print it out. >> well, as you pointed out, clearly, the white house staff did not think this through well. and it's unfortunate that the president even brought this up, because the rest of the speech was designed to, you know, put a trap out there for the republicans on tax issues, and the president was trying to push the idea that we need to up the level of education for people. free community college would be the smartest things we could do for young people, and people who return to school later in life. it would give us a lot of technical workers that we need. some people will go on, as i did, to go to college and graduate school, after going to ioqo community college. so it's very unfortunate they didn't think this one through

and junk it before it got into the state of the union address. >> thank you both for being here. i really appreciate it. that is all in for this evening. the rachel maddow show starts right now. i'm all atwitter. i saw you on twitter. i'll go upstairs and watch. >> we do have news about somebody losing their job, who you won't be able to really believe has actually left their job. >> you got me. well teased. >> thanks, chris. appreciate it. that story is coming up in just a few minutes on the show. somebody on the far political right who has weathered so many political storms. it felt like there was no chance that this person would ever lose his job. we are able to break the news tonight that he has apparently lost his job. you will be surprised by the circumstances that have caused that to happen. we've got that story coming up later on. but thanks for being with us for this hour. this is what it looks like when a person circled